The face-lift of Nicholls State University's football stadium is finished, a little behind schedule but on budget.

The Daily Comet reports the more than $1.3 million project was focused on replacing the stadium's 40-year-old, six-person elevator, which had become dangerously unstable.

Mike Davis, Nicholls' facilities director, said rebuilding the elevator shaft gave the school a chance to make some other changes to John L. Guidry Stadium's facade. Crews enlarged the lobby and built a patio in front of the stadium.

A new fire station planned for Thibodaux will serve residences, a hospital and Nicholls State University.

The founders of Acadia Plantation donated 1.5 acres of land for the station, which the Thibodaux Volunteer Fire Department has been planning for years.

The Daily Comet reports that the station will be the department's tenth in the city. Fire Chief Randy Pate said he hopes to begin the public bid process for contractors in the next six to eight months and to break ground possibly by the end of the year.

A new laboratory at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux will give students hands-on experience with the kind of equipment used to prevent blowouts and other catastrophes on oil rigs.

Nicholls officials and industry executives last week unveiled the lab, which is named after Johnson L. "Bubba" Hale Jr., a Nicholls alumnus and oil industry executive. The Daily Comet reports the Friday ceremony was one of the last formal steps before students in petroleum services and safety technology courses start using the equipment.

Nicholls State University will offer 24 scholarships this fall exclusively to students who are the first in their family to attend college.

The scholarships will range from $500 to $1,250 for qualifying students. The Daily Comet reports that money for Nicholls' First-Generation Endowed Undergraduate Scholarship Program will come from Board of Regents. There will be matching funds from Thibodaux-area contributors.